Interviews

Unable to secure the support of a single parliamentary colleague Alan Duncan has abandoned his bid to be Tory leader. His bid has been generously covered by the media class and in an article for The Guardian Mr Duncan records his “popularity in the country” by referring to "fat box files" full of supportive letters and emails. The fact that this has not translated into parliamentary support has been fatal to his ambitions, he concedes:

”Active lieutenants are crucial if you are to create the impression of support. Who's in whose gang quickly supersedes who thinks what and why, and the papers invariably prefer two opposing camps to the unity in between.”

His “get real or die” message pervades the article and concludes with a strong attack on the Conservative Party’s social conservatives:

”Censorious judgmentalism from the moralising wing, which treats half our own countrymen as enemies, must be rooted out. We should take JS Mill as our lodestar, and allow people to live as they choose until they actually harm someone. If the Tory Taliban can't get that, they'll condemn us all to oblivion. Thank heavens for the new intake of MPs who do.”

Mr Duncan does not pinpoint what, in particular, he means by “censorious judgmentalism” or who belongs to this "Tory Taliban".

Mr Duncan’s leadership bid will be remembered for his strong media performances, his change or die message and the support he won from other Soho modernisers like Michael Portillo and former Treasury minister Philip Oppenheim.

"Mr Duncan observes that his being gay would help to demonstrate, if he were to become party leader, that the Tory Party has "changed". Well, for that matter and on this basis, if David Davis gets elected, he would be able to play the same daft game. Mr Davis would be the first "illegitimate" leader of the Tory party - the son of a single mother, brought up on a council estate and whose father abandoned him at birth. Are we really going to boil the coming Tory leadership contest down to a battle between gays and single mothers?"

Mr Brown, himself a homosexual former Tory MP, hopes for the day when the background of a potential leadership candidate doesn't matter. He is more interested in finding "the candidate who will successfully reduce the size of the state". "That," he writes, "should be the first and last test of who should lead the Conservative Party into the next election".

For Mr Brown that candidate is clearly David Davis. He doesn't quite say as much but this article is not the first time that Mr Brown has poured praise on the Shadow Home Secretary.

As for the substance of Mr Bown's point - that the background of a candidate should be "irrelevant" - that's debateable. The conservativehome.com website's Schizophrenia politics definition asks:

"The idea of separate personal and public lives is not accepted when it comes to non-sexual matters. MPs who may be financially affected by legislation are required to declare their interest if they discuss it in parliament. Judges with personal interests in cases recuse themselves. It is human nature that personal experiences will inform public views. It was notable that a large proportion of gay MPs took leading parts in Parliament’s November 2004 debate on same-sex civil partnerships. It is likely that Boris Johnson MP – whose mistress allegedly terminated a pregnancy – will be reluctant to vote to restrict other people’s abortion rights."

None of this means that, for example, a gay man couldn't make an excellent Tory MP. But social conservatives have a right to ask if that MP will vote to support the institution of marriage. Pro-life voters have a right to suspect that an MP who has terminated her own pregnancy is less likely to vote for laws that will restrict access to abortion.

Michael Portillo's ideal candidate, Alan Duncan wins coverage throughout the media today (eg in the Daily Mail) for his ambition to be the next Conservative leader. The openly gay Shadow Transport Secretary confirms himself as the standard-bearer for the Soho modernisers with a warning that today's Tories appear "socially distateful" and "economically irrelevant". Without radical transformation the Conservative Party could face terminal decline, he fears.

He tells The Daily Telegraph that him becoming leader would mean that noone would have an excuse to vote Liberal Democrat.

Like many before him, Mr Duncan also compares the Tory brand to M&S:

"Marks & Spencer was a fantastic brand in good times but if you have a lousy CEO and lousy knickers you don't do well. Like M&S we need both a good CEO and better frilly knickers."

As Shadow International Development Secretary Mr Duncan secured a breakthrough commitment by the Conservative Party to match Labour's spending commitments. Mr Duncan and his predecessor in the post, John Bercow, became highly regarded by development charities.

A strong supporter of the Palestinian cause, Mr Duncan's social liberalism has previously led him to advocate the decriminalisation of drugs.

Mr Duncan has conceded that he currently has little support in the parliamentary party.

In an interview* with Colin Brown of The Independent, Alan Duncan MP gives the strong impression that he is ready to stand for the Tory leadership.

Mr Duncan, the Tories' first openly gay MP, is said to be one of a number of possible champions of the party's more socially liberal wing. Colin Brown identifies others as Francis Maude, Damian Green, Andrew Lansley and Tim Yeo (who yesterday resigned from the frontbench in order to be free to argue for radical Tory change).

Mr Duncan uses the interview to say that Conservatives still have a "hill to climb... our share of the vote has not increased, we are facing a growing Lib Dem threat".

He rejects "judgementally authoritarian" views towards the family - preferring a socially and economically liberal Conservative Party. He also emphasises green and international justice issues. As Shadow Secretary of State for International Development Mr Duncan campaigned successfully to get the Tory Party to commit to spend 0.7% of national income on overseas aid.

Michael Portillo reviews* the leadership candidates in his regular Sunday Times column.

He writes that Alan Duncan is "the most coherent advocate of change... but he would struggle to attract enough support in the MPs’ ballot".

Of David Davis, Mr Portillo (again a former MP) writes: "David Davis has the advantage over both men in that he does not look like a Tory boy. He would have the backing of the party’s right and he just might turn out to be a Trojan horse for the reformers."

Of the young pretenders, George Osborne and David Cameron, Portillo writes: "George Osborne and David Cameron have become familiar figures during the campaign, but still nobody knows what they believe in".